Born on Bad Wolf Bay
by TheWheelWeaves
Summary: A character study of Rose Tyler after she says goodbye.


**This was written originally as the beginning of my Sherlock/Rose series, but I decided that I was leaning too heavily on exposition and I'd much rather get into the story. I liked how it turned out though, and hated to throw it away.**

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Rose Tyler of the Powell Estates, companion of the Doctor, Henrick's shop assistant, and chavvy blonde from the year 2005 died on a windswept beach in Norway, a short way outside of Bergin on a cloudy day in mid-November.

On the same day, Rose Tyler: Defender of the Earth, named but moments before, was born on Bad Wolf Bay- a cold, desolate beach where the local citizens never visited and never realized had been created to a purpose by a being of infinite power in a universe that was not their own.

This Rose Tyler has been gestating for some 30 months, since an incident in a department store basement and a touch of an alien hand had conceived her. Many names were considered and discarded since that day: Bad Wolf, Dame Rose, the Stuff of Legends, and the Valiant Child.

Rose Tyler's death knell was brought about by the words "you can't" and "impossible" from the mouth of a man who was not there. The fatal blow that stopped her heart was when the face that she had watched change disappeared from in front of her, sentence unfinished. Her final words had been "I love you."

Rose Tyler's birth came on a wave of tears. There were warm, comforting arms, words of sympathy and whispered endearments as she entered the world. Rose Tyler did not speak as Jackie Tyler held her on the cold, wet sand. She did not speak to Pete Tyler or Mickey Smith as they approached her and offered pained condolences. She did not speak as they bundled her into the black jeep and drove over the inferior roads into town to the hotel at which they had registered that morning. She did not speak as her mother plied her with food and tea liberally dosed with brandy. She did not speak when she left her family and entered the unfamiliar and silent room.

Sitting in the silence, alone for the first time since her birth, Rose Tyler took stock of herself. The Rose who had died had been young- barely more than a child. She had loved pretty things (pretty _men_) and the color pink. She had been complacent in dissatisfaction- allowing herself to remain in a relationship with Mickey for so many years, despite knowing it wasn't right for either of them, never confronting the Doctor about his feelings or his behavior toward her. She'd had a tendency towards selfishness and a stronger one towards frivolity. She was mentally lazy- despite knowing that she was innately clever, she had never put forth the effort to cultivate her own intelligence, even when she'd been in school, preferring to think of fashion or hairstyles or boys. She was not, however, all bad. She had been extraordinarily compassionate and generous. She had been quick to accept the impossible. She was imaginative and intuitive and had a nearly boundless capacity for both joy and hope. She assumed the best of people and brought it out of them. She had been the Doctor's Rose, and the Doctor only took the best.

This new Rose Tyler was not entirely different from the other. She was older- not necessarily in body, but in spirit and in mind. She was sadder. Her capacity for joy and hope were not done away with, but somewhat muted. She might be less compassionate and more ruthless than the girl who had died but hours ago. While the old Rose had been a piece of polished stone- smooth, soft to the touch, with a gentle glow but no great brilliance, the new Rose had broken the stone open to find the geode inside- flashes of impossible brilliance and sharp edges and a desire to hone those edges and cut the facets into a perfect, brilliant, but ultimately cold diamond.

The first words that Rose Tyler ever said, shortly after she arrived at breakfast the morning after her birth, dressed in more muted colours and lighter makeup than the dead girl had ever chosen were these: "I'd like to go to university."


End file.
